Libraries parishwide provide free movie, TV downloads

Friday

Nov 29, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 29, 2013 at 11:28 PM

Lafourche Parish residents can download entertainment such as movies, TV shows and music for free through their local library. The Lafourche Parish Library System is one of 50 U.S. library systems to sign up for Hoopla Digital, a Netflix-like service for library card holders.

Jacob BatteStaff Writer

Lafourche Parish residents can download entertainment such as movies, TV shows and music for free through their local library. The Lafourche Parish Library System is one of 50 U.S. library systems to sign up for Hoopla Digital, a Netflix-like service for library card holders.The service offers more than 10,000 movies and TV shows to partnering library systems in the U.S. and Canada. Hoopla Digital also offers some music — including albums from artists such as Drake and Katy Perry — as well as audio books. "As Hoopla Digital helps more public libraries break new ground in mobile access and patron reach, we are diligently working to advance our best-of-breed technology and build our content offering. We are excited to establish content deals with these leading Hollywood studios, which increases our offering of movies, TV shows, documentaries and educational videos," Jeff Jankowski, Hoopla Digital founder and owner, said in a news release.Sanders said the movies Hoopla offers aren't as new as some from Netflix or Amazon.com's Prime Instant streaming service, but will include some fan favorites, such as "Scarface" and "Liar Liar," along with documentaries from National Geographic and BBC America. "It will have a lot of movies. It has a lot of older movies and kids movies," Sanders said.Once a patron downloads the album, movie or TV show to a smartphone or tablet, he or she will have access to the material for three days, Sanders said.Though joining the service is free for the libraries, each movie downloaded by a parish customer costs the library between 99 cents and $1.29, Sanders said. The service is only available to public library patrons. To use the new service, parish residents need a smart phone or tablet, a library card and a pin number. The Lafourche library system joins the Seattle Public Library, Los Angeles Public Library and Salt Lake Public Library as some of the first 50 library systems to use the new service."We're excited about the service," Sanders said. Library Director Laura Sanders said Hoopla reached out to the libraries. "We had been considering another digital service — Freegal — but we met with some people from (Hoopla Digital) and liked what they were offering," Sander said. Sanders said offering services like Hoopla is a way of going beyond meeting state library standards and provide greater service to patrons. "They gave us this money. They entrusted us so we're trying to meet their needs," Sanders said.

Staff Writer Jacob Batte can be reached at 448-7635 or jacob.batte@dailycomet.com. Follow him on Twitter @ja_batte